Skin Care Insider

Beauty from Within

You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” But let’s take this a step further and apply it to your skin – “Your skin is what you eat.”

And no matter what you do on the outside, the inside is going to do more to keep your skin healthy. Consider this:

If you’ve ever bought a house, you know some issues are more important than others. You can change paint colors easily. Foundation issues are a different ball game. Yet when it comes to skincare, we often focus all our energy on changing the paint. We never consider whether the foundation is solid.

Many people devote all their beauty energy to makeup, hair, nail polish, and facial treatments. Moisturizing and exfoliating are great for the skin. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with makeup or a great hairstyle. But for you to look your best, your skin needs the structural integrity it gets from what you eat. Here’s how important this is and what you need to be eating to really let your skin shine....

What you eat every day will do more for your skin health than all the skincare products you’ve ever purchased. The healthier your body, the healthier your skin.

This is starting to catch on. At least it is in Denmark.

As you may know, governments often create dietary guidelines to help keep their citizens healthy, reduce healthcare costs, and improve overall quality of life. But while those are good motives, they aren’t always effective. Sadly, people often just aren’t motivated by their health.

Because of this, Dutch researchers wanted to try a new angle. They thought they might be able to convince people to follow the Dutch dietary guidelines by appealing to their vanity.

Through the Rotterdam Study, the researchers looked at data from 2,753 elderly participants. Now, we know that some wrinkles are likely inevitable as we age. Many of us invest a good bit of time and money in applying lotions and potions to ward them off. These certainly help, but the researchers found that diet can be important as well.

The researchers used a food frequency questionnaire to assess how well the participants followed the Dutch Healthy Diet Index (DHDI). They also evaluated how many wrinkles they had. They used digital tools to determine what percentage of total skin area the wrinkles covered. They separated the men and women and analyzed the relationships between their dietary habits and wrinkle severity.

Interestingly, there didn’t seem to be much of a connection for men. But for women, the better they followed the DHDI, the fewer wrinkles they had. In particular, those who ate more red meat and snacked more frequently had more wrinkles. Those who had higher fruit consumption had fewer wrinkles.

This study measured only association, not causation. But other studies have linked healthy diets to healthy skin. I’ve seen this in my own practice. My patients that eat a diet similar to that described in this study, the better their skin. So keep snacking to a minimum. If you do snack, choose whole foods – like fruit. Limiting red meat is also a good idea. That’s a tenet of many healthy diets, including my personal favorite, the Mediterranean diet. And of course, you should be eating plenty of vegetables and whole grains as well. Doing so will help give your skin the nutrients it needs to nourish your skin.

I’m obviously a fan of anti-wrinkle skincare products. The Systeme 41 line of products can keep your skin looking great. These products work. But I want to be sure I’m using every tool available to me to keep my skin looking its best. And a healthy diet certainly seems to be one of them.

Since most of us don’t eat enough nutrients on a daily basis to keep our skin healthy, supplements are an important factor for healthy skin.

Vitamins Build Collagen, Enhancing Skin’s Appearance

One of the foundational elements of your body is collagen. It’s vital for every tissue connection in your body, from your joints to your skin. Collagen helps your skin grow new cells. And it provides the support structure that makes skin look firm and healthy.

External forces like UV radiation and pollution can break collagen down. But you can build it back up from the inside. You just need the right nutrients.

One of the best nutrients for building collagen is vitamin C. Since your body doesn’t make this vitamin on its own, you need to get it from your diet or from supplements.

Vitamin C helps keep the triple helix structure that makes collagen stable. And stable collagen means firmer, healthier skin. But if you have a vitamin C deficiency, your body will have trouble making collagen at all.

Vitamin E and vitamin A are important to healthy collagen as well. Vitamin A can help prevent UV rays from breaking collagen down. And vitamin E helps slow the natural aging processes that cause collagen breakdown as well.

Of course, you can and should be getting these vitamins from your diet. But sometimes an extra boost helps. One great way to get extra vitamin C in particular is by taking Healthy Hair and Nails.

Don’t let the name fool you. By supporting healthy collagen production, this product will help your skin too. And, of course, you’ll enjoy the additional benefits to your hair and nails. After all, while you want your house to have a healthy foundation, it’s always nice to like the paint colors too! With Healthy Hair and Nails, you can have it all.

Vitamin E Works Synergistically with Vitamin C

While the combination of vitamins C and E can benefit your skin by supporting collagen formation, that’s not all this dynamic duo can do. Vitamin C is a superstar in the skincare world. But vitamin E has a lot to offer as well. If you’re already using vitamin C, you can supercharge it with the help of vitamin E.

Like vitamin C, vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant. And the two work together synergistically. UV exposure can generate free radicals in the skin. When this happens, vitamin C converts E into a different form. And this new form can help stop the aging process.

It does this by keep cell membranes stable. It also stops polyunsaturated fatty acids from oxidizing. Oxidation translates to damage.

Several studies have found that applying vitamin E topically helps sunburns heal. And it can help reduced sun damage and even skin cancer risk.

Taking vitamin E orally is also beneficial. One three-week study found that taking a daily supplement could significantly increase vitamin E levels in the skin. If you’d rather not take a supplement, you can get vitamin E in your diet from foods like almonds and leafy greens. Try topping a spinach salad with strawberries and slivered almonds for a glow-boosting meal.

Getting both vitamins C and E orally and topically is the best bet for your skin. If you’re already using the Système 41 Vitamin C Serum, you are not only getting two easily absorbed forms of vitamin C, but a unique combination of trace minerals, which aid in collagen maintenance.

If you’re not, you can try to hunt down these vitamins from separate sources. Or you can just make the switch to the serum. I think you’ll be amazed at how well these two vitamins work together to benefit your skin. Many of our readers have written, telling us that they notice improvement in only two short weeks.